disastrous san bruno pipeline explosion, federal investigators have wrapping up their work at the site. and tonight, new questions for pg&e about the nearby stretch of pipeline labeled high risk. and we're hearing tales of heroic rescues in the middle of chaos. len ramirez has the story of good samaritans who rush into a care home where seniors had been left behind. len. >> reporter: the natural thing to do when the neighborhood went on fire was to run away and that's what some caregivers did. unfortunately, they left behind their six elderly patients. fortunately, some good samaritans, some neighbors were racing into the scene and they rescued them. >> we knew it was so big that someone needed some help somehow. reporter: seconds after the explosion rocked their neighborhood, bob and his 25- year-old son bobby drove down vermont way to homes close to the flames and found a lot of people who needed help including an elderly woman on the sidewalk. >> she was screaming, help, help, help, help!

we didn't quite know if there were kids in the house or if there was you know -- we had no idea there were elderly people. >> reporter: they were at 1136 vermont a converted nursing hope and went inside. they were shocked to find several wheelchair-bound elderly women left behind by their female caregivers. >> i went into the family room, living room and kitchen screaming come out, the fire, help, help, and there was no sound. so i looked down the hallway and i said, well, i'm going down the hallway, and i saw an elderly lady in a reclining chair with oxygen on and stereo headphones on with her back to the window. she had no idea that what was going on. so i took everything off her and i said, come on, sweetheart, we have to go. we have to go. >> reporter: they evacuated all six women who lived there. jerry hill was down the block taking photos of the scene.

he said everyone was scared but wonders how the caregivers could just leave. >> if you had your loved ones in that home and they forgot 'em, that's what basically what happened, they were forgotten. >> reporter: arnold deleon runs the home called the golden era care home. what do you say about this? >> i want to thank the people that saved all the people in there, that's all. thank you. >> reporter: tell me about the people who were giving the care, why did they take off, can you tell us about that? >> story. >> reporter: can you explain what kind of caregivers they are? deleon's own mother was one of the people evacuated by the neighbors and firefighters who joined in the good samaritan effort. they drove the women to the hospital in their own cars. none were seriously injured. >> i have always taught my kids, help people when you can. you know? and if anybody ever says anything, oh, you know, what can i do for you helping me, pass the favor along. >> reporter: as you saw from the piece, the owner of the home was not in a very

talkative mood, allen so we don't know exactly what the status of those two caregivers is at the moment. but san mateo county officials are asking for an investigation into what happened. they are also going to be recommending a commendation for bob, bobby and others who helped in the situation. >> absolutely. questions that need answers. all right, len ramirez thank you. tough questions about pg&e and the safety of its bay area pipelines. simon perez has the story. >> reporter: a mile section of pipe just north of here in san bruno that just a year ago pg&e declared was at a high risk of failure is now no longer putting the people of south san francisco at risk even though pg&e hasn't done anything to the pipe. pg&e records show both in 2007 and in 2009, the company considered a mile stretch of gas pipe line a few miles north of here a high risk saying the pipe had, quote, relatively high risk and likelihood of failure and it called the risk

of failure, quote, unacceptably high. >> we are constantly assessing the safety and reliability of our system. when we find that we reevaluate it, we up -- we changed those evaluations immediately. >> reporter: so what is it the status of it now? it's downgraded to what? >> it is not on that top 100 list. i'm not sure exactly where it is. >> okay. >> reporter: so despite this original alarming report, it's now no longer considered a top 100? >> that's correct. >> reporter: moreover, pg&e actually asked for the permission to increase its rates and it did to fix that line but apparently that money was spent someplace else. so it's a little bit of a confusing timeline but 2007 pg&e says that pipeline in south san francisco is dangerous gets the money to fix it, doesn't, dogs another review in 2009, says it's really dangerous, wants to fix it later and goes back and does

another review and says it's just fine even though nothing has been done to the pipe. >> thank you, simon perez. now for the first time, governor schwarzenegger got a look at the disaster zone. he arrived in san bruno this afternoon. he had been in asia on a trade mission when the disaster happened. he promised to hold accountable everybody who is responsible for the disaster. >> every, single thing that will come out of this accident, of this disaster, if there was a fault, problem, something wasn't maintained, whatever it may be, you will know. there is no hiding of information, i can guarantee you that. >> while the governor was gone, lieutenant governor abel maldonado did declare a state of emergency in san mateo county making state money available. well, firefighters made some quick work of a grassfire in orinda this afternoon. fire broke out just about 2:00 p.m., burned about 2 acres next to eastbound highway 24. the cause of the fire, they

don't know that yet. chp briefly shut down the orinda on-ramp while crews from moraga, orinda fire district and the contra costa county knocked down those flames. gubernatorial candidate jerry brown wore his attorney general hat today, sued city leaders in the town of bell in southern california. brown filed lawsuits against eight former and current city leaders accusing them of fraud and conspiracy. the civil suits demand they return hundreds of thousands of dollars in inflated salaries that they gave themselves. >> no doubt that the activities and scowling every city council and the method by which they paid the city manager wasted money and broke the laws of california. you can see it and smell it and it stinks to high heaven. >> bell has some of the highest paid leaders in the country while one in six citizens there

lives in poverty. brown says his investigators will be look at other cities in an effort to reform salary and pension practices throughout the state. brown's rival for the governor's seat has now spent more of her own money on her campaign than any other politician in u.s. history. meg whitman who visited yelp in san francisco this afternoon just contributed another $15 million to her campaign. her total personal donation is up to $119 million surpassing new york mayor michael bloomberg for the biggest personal contribution. whitman talked to yelp workers about creating jobs in california. >> the reason that i'm running for governor of california is i want the next yelp, the next ebay, the next amgen, the next google, to be right here in california. and we have got to make sure that whenever you're thinking about starting and growing a business, california is the place you want to be. >> whitman says if we're going to get out of this budget mess, california has to be more competitive and to do that, the

state has to fundamentally change its business climate. a nail biter of a primary election in new hampshire ended with a tea party candidate for senate just barely losing. but as joel brown shows us, the tea party movement is claiming victory in republican primaries in other key states. reporter: she's the tea party nominee who beat the odds to win the republican primary. but the question now is, can she win in november? >> if those same people who fought against me worked just as hard for me, we will win. >> reporter: christine o'donnell beat out nine-term gop veteran mike castle in delaware's senate primary and she did it despite establishment republicans who mobilized against her. in the primary campaign, top republicans called o'donnell unelectable. now they have given democrats plenty of ammunition to use against her in november. >> the republicans in delaware nominated somebody that they don't believe can win. i think in the words of the state party chair, couldn't be

elected dog catcher. >> reporter: o'donnell's just the latest in a string of tea party candidates to win a republican senate primary. but democrats are hoping that the tea party's ultraconservative views will be a big turnoff for more moderate voters in november. by wednesday morning, republican leaders were putting differences aside. at a washington rally, the keyword was unity. >> we cannot in this moment, waste the opportunity by tearing each other down. >> reporter: tea party candidate carl paladino won in new york. but in new hampshire the tea party candidate for senate narrowly lost. the next big test will be the general election in six weeks. at stake will be nothing less than control of congress. joel brown, cbs 5 news, washington. will nannies keep closer to home? and a new look for twitter,

will it help users be better tweeters? introducing the samsung fascinate powered by verizon. super amoled screen. six-axis 3d gaming and access to thousands of free apps. all in one ultra-thin package. you want it, we got it. the samsung fascinate. only at verizon.

if you have tried parking in some san francisco neighborhoods, you know residential permits rule the spaces. everybody else has to move their car every two hours. as mike sugerman found out, some determined nannies want to change that system. reporter: what do you think, san francisco nannies just flying to work? no, many drive and have to worry about moving their car to avoid getting parking tickets. [ screaming ] >> reporter: especially in the 27 family heavy neighborhoods with two-hour parking limits. it's a total of one quarter of all city streets. >> i have had a number of parking tickets in san francisco. and they're very expensive. >> reporter: linda ma seen in a takes care of 22-month-old nathaniel and drives in every day. should she get parking privileges? some moms and nannies want them to have the same parking permits people who live in the

neighborhood have so they can park all day without having to move the car of two hours. >> the baby is sleeping but the parking control officer is down the street giving tickets. do you have time to go out and move the car? i guess you have to. >> it is important to nannies because we're taking care of children. and it's not like you can just run out and leave the baby if the baby is sleeping and move the car. >> reporter: it's important for nannies to have cars, say moms like sarah fairhurst who doesn't have a nanny herself. >> what if there was an emergency and you needed to take the baby to the hospital, they can take them to school, do errands. >> reporter: but people are trying to fine parking spots and it's hard enough and now nannies will have their own permits to park? >> i don't think so actually. >> reporter: andre davidson hires a mass transit riding nanny for 3.5-year-old ashley so there is no issue for her. but if there were? >> no, there's first of all no reason why they can't take the child with them. and i actually don't have an

issue. kids sleeping? you know? for five minutes you can come outside your house. >> reporter: the metropolitan transportation agency will end up making the final determination on this nanny transportation issue. ♪ [ music ] >> reporter: mike sugerman cbs 5. ♪ [ music ] >> they need a spoonful of sugar. another bay area city has adopted strict new limits on where smokers can light up. the menlo park city council has unanimously approved a smoking ban in common areas of apartments and condo buildings as well as parks and picnic areas plus athletic fields and transit stops. the council needs to vote on that law one more time to put it into effect. violators could be fined up to $100. twitter is getting a makeover. it promises to be faster and more user-friendly. kcbs radio's matt bigler shows us twitter's new look. >> reporter: it features a split screen display so on the left-hand side you have your text entries or your tweets.

and on the right-hand side, multimedia content. users can now upload things like pictures, videos, web links that kind of thing, and they will pop up as soon as you click on a tweet. it's prett slick. we talked to some analysts about why they are doing this. they want to better compete with facebook which has been doing this for some time and they can also display advertising connected with that multimedia content, helps to sell some more display ads. these changes will probably not take effect right away but sometime this week if you are a twitter user, you should be able to see these changes and upload multimedia content to your tweets. i'm matt bigler in san jose, for cbs 5. what's your online password or passwords? what if you can't remember? consumerwatch on the trouble forgotten passwords can get you into. here in the weather center, it's a tricky forecast. still trying to nail the day that you can anticipate the rain returning here to the bay area. that pinpoint forecast as eyewitness news continues after this. ,,

our state is in a real mess. and i'm not going to give you any phony plans or snappy slogans that don't go anywhere. we have to make some tough decisions. we have to live within our means. we have got to take the power from the state capitol and move it down to the local level, closer to the people. and no new taxes, without voter approval. we have got to pull together not as republicans or as democrats but as californians first. at this stage in my life, i'm prepared to do exactly that.

she fought to get our veterans the first full combat care center in california. her after school law is keeping a million kids off the street and out of gangs. and she's fighting every day to create new jobs. i'm working to make california the leader in clean energy. to jump-start our small businesses with tax credits and loans to create thousands more california jobs. i'm barbara boxer, and i approve this message... because i want to see the words made in america again.

happens all right. if you have a computer, you have passwords no doubt. what happens if you forget it or for some reason the system locks you out? on consumerwatch, a password problem that took some extra help to solve. reporter: when it comes to an address book, she prefers to go electronic. the business consultant says she has more than 600 contacts stored in her gmail account. >> this is my only contact database. that's it. >> reporter: but a few weeks ago when she tried to log into her email account, her password was rejected. >> it didn't recognize me anymore. i tried other people's computers thinking maybe it's a problem with my computer. didn't recognize my anywhere. >> reporter: her computer had been updated, which deleted the automatic log-ins and the backup email address she provided was no longer active.

>> felt like i had no friends? i didn't know how to find my friends and family. [ crying ] >> reporter: after weeks of e- mailing google and even paying a visit to the company's corporate headquarters with no results, she turned to consumerwatch for help where our producer contacted google and within minutes, reiser was able to reset her password. a person from cnet says it's not uncommon to forget a password especially when a feature like automatic log-in is used. >> i think people forget their passwords all the time especially because we're being trained now to create passwords that are impossible to crack. >> reporter: and that's when resetting a password can be a challenge. >> the service companies there is nothing they can do. they don't know who you are to begin with. >> the best thing to do is to make sure your backup systems are in place. >> reporter: needleman even says using a password management software might be the solution to never forgetting a password. but reiser says she is now avoiding the automatic log-in feature. as for her contacts, she now

keeps a hard copy. going the wouldn't disclose exactly what happened just to say it isn't a typical experience. in fact, google has a new feature that reminds users to update your backup information. and if you have a consumer problem, call our hotline 1-888- 5-helps-u. but, you know, somebody i suspect never forgets a password... do you? >> i really don't. >> you use it all the time. >> i think with weather, also, you're big into stats. >> that's not your password, weather. >> oh, never, that's too obvious, isn't it? [ laughter ] we have lots of different weather it talk about here in the bay area because we have one day a little bit of warmth, the next day cooling trend and now we have rain in the horizon. this is our live cbs 5 weather camera looking towards downtown san jose. the visibility is unlimited due to a northwest breeze at 50 miles an hour. it's clearing out the atmosphere. 70 degrees there currently. in contrast, check out the coast side where currently, air temperatures there in ocean

beach 59 degrees, stratus with low clouds and patchy fog. marine layer pushing onshore tonight. look at some of the status. vacaville, wow, that was just at 87 degrees. jumped up to 90? southwest breeze at 7. novato to the north 78 degrees. belmont along the peninsula at 63. and san francisco is in the upper 50s with a southwest southwest breeze at 8. winds will be increasing over the next couple of hours as the sun sets officially at 7:29. meanwhile tomorrow morning, sun- up at 6:49. you can an anticipate the low clouds and fog to surge 60 miles inland. tonight overnight, 40s santa rosa, 50s san jose, 53 toward discovery bay and fairfield. there is the leading edge of the marine layer. again by tomorrow morning's sun- up, we do have everybody under that blanket of low clouds and patchy fog. now, we're going to squeeze out one more good-looking day, stratus-free until this right

here. it's an area of low pressure. looks like it wants to in all apart as it bangs up against the pacific northwest. it's going to scrape across the northern half of the state producing the chance of rain by the weekend. tomorrow's daytime high 78 degrees in san jose. that's down from the average high of 38 degrees. 76 in los altos. east bay number 63 in richmond to the mid-80s in diablo and danville backing through san ramon. 85 in antioch. 76 petaluma. partial coastal clearing and 60 degrees. meanwhile the extended forecast does sport that chance of rain showers in the north bay especially on saturday. everybody has a chance on sunday. and gradually turning partly cloudy by monday. it's mypix by karen and jeff from monterey bay. send us your beautiful photographers at mypix@cbs5.com.

>> thank you. you know what? americans have grown so sour on that high fructose corn syrup that the makers want to change it. the corn refiners industry is asking the fda for permission to sort of sweeten the product's image. dr. kim mulvihill here with how it's all in the label? >> a recent poll found 58% of americans believe high fructose corn syrup poses a health risk. so it's getting a grand new name. >> like any parents, i have questions about the food my daughter eats reporter: in a new ad campaign say good-bye to high fructose corn syrup. say hello to the brand-new name, corn sugar. >> whether it's corn sugar arcane sugar, the body can't tell the difference. sugar is difference. >> learn more at cornsugar.com. >> high fructose corn syrup. >> reporter: so what's up with the name change? well, the corn refiners association is fed up with what

it calls a bad rap that high fructose corn syrup is more harmful than table sugar. >> your body can't tell the difference. sugar is sugar. >> reporter: high fructose corn syrup is used in soft drinks, breads, cereals and other products. but media reports and certain studies have soured the public on its use. consumption of the sweetener is at an all-time low. most scientists agree, sugar is sugar. but that's the problem. whether corn sugar or cane should go gas, all sugars con take fructose. eat too much and some researchers say you will gain excess weight, hurt your liver and develop insulin resistance. >> you get the same amount of fructose by sugar or high fructose corn syrup. it's not where you go the the fructose it's that you get it at all that matters. >> reporter: the doctor says the safest way to eat fructose is in a piece of fruit. fiber helps balance the sugars.

if the fda approves the name corn sugar, they can change the name on the food label. >> this is a strong lobbying group. how soon before we see the change? >> it could take years. don't hold your breath but they are pushing out the corn sugar tuit suite. thanks, kim. a birthday happening at the zoo. the celebration for that gator of a different color, not exactly the zoo, but close enough. what was in the cupcakes? not sugar. ,,,,

when it comes to veterans, no one fights harder than jerry mcnerney. when some vets were forced to travel hours for care, mcnerney fought for a new v.a. medical facility, and won. mcnerney took on washington gridlock, to improve care for vets with traumatic brain injuries. his plan became law. that's why vfw state commander dave norris endorsed mcnerney. i'm jerry mcnerney, and i'm honored to approve this message. thanks, dad. you inhale, they inhale. millions of children continue to be exposed to secondhand smoke. secondhand smoke causes asthma, a disease that cannot be cured. protect your loved ones.

they're convenient, when you re always on the go. but restaurants in one bay area city are fed up with i'm dana king. here's what we're working on for eyewitness news at 6:00. they are convenient when you're on the go but restaurants in one bay area city are fed up with food trucks? what can be done to cuts out the competition. off the air. the campaign ads pulled from several stations across california. we'll have that and much more tonight at 6:00, allen. >> all right, dana. we will see you then in 30 minutes. covered, head to tail in white. a beloved bay area attraction celebrated a birthday today. san francisco's albino alligator turned 15 years old. his name is claude. and he got 15 cupcakes made of pellets, not the zoo. this is the california academy of sciences. claude is a little over 180 pounds, 8 feet 5 inches long. he is completely white. the lack of pigment in his body

only 15? he could live to be 80. >> he is gorgeous. >> see you at 6:00. hr s in the local t-ball league, and i always get a little worried when i watch the games, because they could hurt themselves... and doctors are so expensive and...what if -- [ umpire ] safe!! what do you mean he was safe? he was out!!!!! i just want to make sure they're okay, you know? [ male announcer ] we know health coverage isn't cheap. that's why we offer a wide range of plans to fit your family's budget. blue shield.

baccalaureate. correct. [ audience groans ] since this competition has been continuing for 48 hours and we have yet to eliminate anyone, it is the decision of this board to declare all 20 contestants winners. you have all competed admirably. admirably. a-d-m-i-r-a-b-l-y. admirably. [ male announcer ] at&t is making high speed internet affordable for only $14.95 a month with select services. at&t. rethink possible. carly fiorina laid off 30,000 workers. when you're talking about massive layoffs, which we did... perhaps the work needs to be done somewhere else. [ male announcer ] fiorina shipped jobs to china. and while californians lost their jobs, fiorina tripled her salary. bought a million dollar yacht. and five corporate jets. i'm proud of what i did at hp.